drysuit weighting

[akajack]

Well I made my first drysuit dive and love the suit a ND Vortex, thanks Bob3. However, I way underestimated the amount of extra weight that I would need. I dive Calif. beaches mostly and have found that 18 lbs is perfect with my hp 80 and a one piece henderson gold 7/5 wetsuit. I purchased the 300 wt flectalon (overkill I know) and added 6lbs to the weight belt. I could barely get down and ended up carrying a large rock for buoyancy the entire dive. I know not the best plan of attack, but I was familiar with the site and diving with very capable buddy. My question is will a pair of ski underwear, PolarMax, keep me warm enough under the tri-lam suit? and if so how much extra weight if any will I need. I appears that I need to add over 10lbs more for the 300wt undergarment? Does that sound right or am I missing something. Sorry for the long post, hope I didn't miss this post elsewhere.
thanks
jack

 

[Uncle Pug]

is your suit a trilam shell or a neoprene drysuit ?

 

[DiverBuoy]

Was it custom fit?

 

[ckharlan66]

Get yourself double 104's it is no longer an issue.

Sorry I don't guess that is the advice that you were looking for. I am sure someone with better advice will happen this way.

Good luck.

Chad

 

[guerosd]

Odd....

I bought a DUI tri-lam about 6 months ago w/ the 300s underwear and it was a break even in the amount of weight I had from my 2-piece 7mm oniell (20lbs w/ AL80).

Since you mention its your 1st drysuit dive... could it just be that you had too much air in it? I don't use my drysuit for bouyancy, and only put enough air in it so that I dont get bruises from the vacum pack .

 

[akajack]

Its a tri-lam suit, not a custom fit, but fits well. When I did the DUI dog days tl 350 I believe I added 4lbs with a 100wt undergarment. That worked fine. On this dive I had the bc fully deflated and had squeezed out as much air as possible. I kept finding myself adding air to the suit only when the "squeeze" became uncomfortable.

 

[Uncle Pug]

akajack once bubbled...
Its a tri-lam suit, not a custom fit, but fits well. When I did the DUI dog days tl 350 I believe I added 4lbs with a 100wt undergarment. That worked fine. On this dive I had the bc fully deflated and had squeezed out as much air as possible. I kept finding myself adding air to the suit only when the "squeeze" became uncomfortable.

Hopefully we can help. 24# should be more than enough... in fact... too much.

I dive a trilam with 300g polarfleece and use... well... a lot less.

First... you are probably putting too much air into the suit. Without gear wade out into the water holding your neck seal open and get as much air out of the suit this way as possible.

That is the level of *snuggness* that you want to maintain during the dive. Dive with your auto dump in full open position.

Your BC may be trapping air... most do... but you will just have to live with that... and carry the weight to make up for it... plus some BCs have instrinsic buoyancy.

Give it a try again at 24# and use your BC for buoyancy compensation... not your suit. When you get down to 500 psi (or just take an *empty* to the water and start there) see if you can maintain a 10 foot stop without any air in the BC and as much air out of the suit as possible.

Report back.

 

[Genesis]

don't tell the folks over at the LDSs around here who want to sell me a "drysuit course" that I should use my wing for buoyancy and not the suit!

Every one of them has parroted the line that the BC is solely a BACKUP buoyancy device when diving dry!

That seems, well, wrong to me.

But being in the "considering buying" mode right now on the suit, with zero bubble time in one, what do I know?

 

[squirrel]

i'm the same weight 13lb in a cressi 7mm semidry, and flx50/50 dui with 200 undies......

 

[divrnr]

I have a tri lam and use 200wt fleece with my polypro undies and use about 22lbs consistenly the last 30 dives with al80's. That's with a SS bp and STA. Do like Unk Pug says and take the next 3-4 dives to relax(key word) and get neutral with a empty tank(500psi). Bring some extra weights and experiment. Are you using a SS BP and STA?